Announced Thursday, AOL has decided to do a little venturing into the online world of video distribution. AOL will now sell through its new video portal many major television shows and movies. The deal is expected to help AOL boost revenues after recently deciding to drop subscription fees for high speed customers. AOL will be partnering with News Corp.’s 20th Century Fox (the people who bought MySpace for half a billion), Sony Corp’s Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, NBC Universal’s Universal Pictures, and Time Warner Inc.’s Warner Bros. Visitors to AOL’s new portal will be allowed to download titles from those studios for $9.99 to $19.99 each and burn the movie or television episode(s) to a DVD. AOL will also be selling Fox television shows for $1.99 an episode.

I think this recent move speaks of AOL’s desperation to catch up with major competitors. Ad supported web sites powered by AOL have been slumming in the recent months and this video portal will hopefully bring a little hope for the company.